


Balance

by greaterunovanarea



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Crossover, F/M, Gen, Jedi Master Iroh, M/M, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Science Fiction, Sith Lord Ozai
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:55:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26607847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greaterunovanarea/pseuds/greaterunovanarea
Summary: When Jedi Master Iroh and his two padawan crash on a planet believed to be abandoned, they find a force-sensitive girl who triggers a series of events that lead to one boy bringing balance to the force.
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong, Aang/Katara (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 19





	Balance

“We’ve been hit!” Iroh quickly activated the comm. “Toph, get back to the cockpit and strap in! Looks like we’re headed for a crash landing!”

Toph quickly climbed up from the cannons and made her way to a seat. “Master Iroh I’m sorry! They were too quick and too small for me to get a good hit on!” She grabbed the armrests tighter as the ship started to rumble.

“It’s okay, Toph. They were hard to hit. And you managed to hold them off long enough for the food shipment to get away.” Iroh smiled, even as alarms started blaring. “You did well, my Padawan.”

The ship jerked to one side, changing the trajectory from Etraxa, the source of the food shipment, to a mysterious blue and white planet. “Um, Master Iroh? Why are we headed towards the abandoned planet?” Aang asked. Toph’s head shot up and she curled further in on herself.

“It seems the force is directing me towards this planet.”

“What, does the force want us to die slow, horrible deaths with nobody else around?!”

“Calm down, Toph. We’ll be okay. I know it because Master Iroh isn’t upset.” Aang smiled and reached out his hand to meet Toph’s so she had something to squeeze. Even after all these years, she still didn’t like flying. 

They entered the atmosphere of the planet and immediately started to feel turbulence that almost lifted Aang out of his seat. Now that they were below the clouds, he could see that the planet was covered in a vast ocean with large patches of ice, one of which they were headed directly towards. 

“Hold on- this is gonna be rough!” Iroh said, pulling up on the controls to minimize the damage. As soon as the ship touched down, there was a plume of snow that flew high into the air and a screeching of metal. All three Jedi were thrown forwards in their seats, causing Toph to cry out. Iroh grimaced as he heard what sounded like the tearing of metal. Thankfully, the ship slid along the thick layer of snow that covered much of the ice, coming to rest a few miles away from where they had initially touched down. 

Aang pulled down the communicator. “I’ll send a distress signal.” Iroh nodded. Toph was taking deep breaths, still holding on to Aang’s free hand. “Shoot- it’s broken!”

“What?! We’re stranded here?”

“No, Toph, I’m sure-”

“For the time being, yes. But I’m sure the council will come looking for us when they realize we’re gone.” Iroh smiled. “Until then, we’ll just have to deal with each other.”

Toph relaxed and Aang let out a small laugh. “Being stranded won’t be so bad. Maybe we can practice even more with our lightsabers, Toph!” Aang made fighting noises while gesturing, causing Toph to laugh. 

“I’m glad I can’t see you right now because I know you’re doing something stupid with your hands.” Aang giggled.

“Guilty as charged.” Aang unstrapped himself from his seat and began to walk out of the cockpit. “I’m starving! Nothing after a crash landing like a good snack.”

“Padawan Aang, we don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here. Let’s try and conserve food for now.” Aang slumped over.

“But-”

“We have to make sure we have enough, Aang, and for now that means no snacks until-” Iroh was cut off by a pounding sound from outside.

“What’s that? What’s going on?”

Toph gasped. “People!”  
“I thought this planet had no life on it?”  
“Well, think again, Twinkletoes!”

Aang rushed back to the transparisteel windows to see that there were, in fact, a group of people emerging from the fog riding some kind of animal. Aang gasped. “I wanna try! I wanna try!”

“Let’s hope they’re friendly first.” Toph nodded.

Iroh got up. “I will meet them outside alone. You two stay here.” Toph and Aang nodded. Toph reached down to grip the hilt of her lightsaber as Iroh left the cockpit. 

As the Jedi Master left the ship, the people came to a stop in front of him. Iroh saw that they were riding some sort of animal, and they all gave them treats as they came to a stop. They had weapons, but they were strapped to their backs instead of in their hands, which Iroh guessed was a good sign.

“Hello. I am Master Iroh. Apologies for any disturbance my ship may have caused- we were hit and had to crash land here, but we come in peace.” Iroh opened his hands to show that he had no weapons. 

A man stepped forwards. He had hair down to his shoulders with one side braided. “Hello, Master Iroh. I am Hakoda, chief of the Southern tribe of Aquora. It is a pleasure to meet you.” He extended his hand, which Iroh took with a smile. “Are you alone?”

“It’s lovely to meet you, too, and no, I’m not alone. I was assisting in protecting a food shipment with my two padawans, Aang and Toph, when we were shot down. Don’t worry- they are both children and will not bring you any harm.” Iroh opened the door and yelled down the hallway. “Aang! Toph! Come meet these people! They’re friendly!”

A moment later, Aang and Toph exited the ship and both started shivering from the cold. 

Aang bowed. “It’s n-n-nice to meet you! I am Aang, a p-padawan of th-the Jedi.”

“I’m Toph.”

“Jedi?” Hakoda asked. “Have you finally come to pick her up?”

Iroh’s eyebrows furrowed. “Who is ‘she?’” 

“Hakoda, they said they crash landed.”

“Well, maybe it was a destined crash landing, Bato!” Hakoda turned back towards Iroh. “My daughter- she’s been force sensitive from a very young age, and we’ve always hoped that the Jedi would come pick her up and train her. No Jedi ever visited… until today!”

Iroh’s face morphed into shock. “Force sensitive?” Hakoda nodded. “I’m so sorry, we’ve always thought that this planet harbored no life.” Hakoda raised his eyebrows. “How old is your daughter?”

“She’s recently turned fourteen. You should come back to our village to meet her.”

Iroh nodded and turned to his padawan. “You two up for an adventure?” Toph and Aang both nodded, still shivering.

“Would you two like coats?” asked the man who Hakoda had called Bato. The two both nodded and Bato unstrapped the rucksack off his back and pulled out two heavy coats. 

“We only have one extra otter penguin to ride,” Hakoda said. He gestured towards the animals that they had all come in on. “How about Aang you come with me and Toph you go with Bato?” Everyone nodded.

Momentarily, they were off, racing back towards the village. It was a small circle of houses surrounded by a wall of snow and ice. A large group of people, mostly children, came out to greet them.

From the crowd emerged two young teenagers who immediately came up to hug Hakoda. “Dad!”

Aang’s jaw dropped when he saw Hakoda’s daughter. She was the prettiest girl he had ever seen in his life! She was dressed in a large coat, much the same as everyone else in the tribe, but she looked amazing in it. She had long hair that was tied into a ponytail and beautiful blue eyes that Aang thought he could get lost in. She smiled and Aang almost gasped. Her necklace shined almost as much as her smile. Aang snapped himself out of his daze when he heard Hakoda trying to talk to him.

“Aang, these are my kids, Sokka and Katara. Sokka and Katara, this is Aang.” Hakoda waved over Iroh and Toph.

“Nice to meet you, Aang,” said Katara.

“N-nice to meet you, too!”

Hakoda introduced Iroh and Toph. “Katara, we’ve finally been visited by Jedi!”

Katara’s face lit up. “You three are Jedi?! Does this mean you’re finally going to take me to start my training?! I’ve been working on my own, promise! Look at what I can do!” Katara immediately began to focus very intensely and was able to slowly lift her father’s spear out of its holster on his back and draw it into her hands.

“Very good, Katara!” Aang clapped. He smiled at her. “You’re a natural!”

Sokka rolled his eyes and groaned. “Does this mean Katara finally has other people to do her weird magic with?”

“It’s not magic, Sokka! It’s the force!”

“The force, magic, what’s the difference! You lift things with your mind, Katara!”

“You are so insufferable! What, just because your ‘logic’ can’t explain why I have cool powers and you don’t means that my powers are weird?” Sokka turned his nose up. “I know for a fact that if you were force sensitive it’s all we’d ever hear about!”

“Maybe if I were force sensitive I’d be good enough for the Jedi to notice me when I was still a kid!”

Katara was silent, but she looked like she was about to punch Sokka in the face. Iroh ran over and pushed the siblings apart. “Whoah, whoah, whoah! The force is a great power, and your sister is very lucky to be strong with it. You should be impressed at how far she has come on her own!”

Toph laughed. “Yeah! Twinkletoes here couldn’t even lift up his own lightsaber until he’d been in training for three years!” She leaned back and cackled.

“Hey!” Aang frowned. 

“Are you coming to take me back to the Jedi Temple so I can finally be a Jedi, too? I’ve been waiting for this moment since I was three years old!”

Iroh scratched the back of his head. “Not exactly.” Katara slumped. “We actually crash landed on this planet accidentally, but now I know why the force wanted us to crash here- it was leading us to you.” Katara looked up as Iroh leaned down towards her. “I promise, as soon as we can get out of here, whether that means waiting for the Jedi to find us or somehow managing to fix our ship, we will take you with us to Coruscant if that’s what you want.”

Katara nodded. “More than anything!”

“Wait- did you say your ship needs fixing?” Sokka asked. “Not to brag, but I’ve been fascinated with spaceships from a young age and I consider myself a pretty good engineer- I built that very watchtower you see before you in town!”

“Do you know how to fix a spaceship?” Toph asked.

“Yep!”

Aang rolled his eyes. “C’mon, where would you even find-”

“He’s not lying.” Aang’s head snapped around to Toph. “How have you managed to get familiar with any kind of spacecraft?”  
Sokka grinned. “There’s a ship that crashed here a long time ago- even before dad was born, and we would always go on adventures to it as little kids. Eventually I began stripping it for parts and learned how it would work if it wasn’t so old and frozen. Maybe I can use the parts to get your ship going again-”

“Yeah that would be great!”

“If! You take me with you to Coruscant!”

“Huh?”

Sokka leaned back against Katara to dramatically reminisce. “Ever since we first went to that spaceship as little kids, I’ve always dreamed of being able to pilot one. I want to learn to fly!”

Iroh looked to Hakoda, who nodded resignedly. He turned back to Sokka. “Okay. We’ll take you with us.” Sokka grinned and hopped up and down.

“Alright! Now- let’s get working on what needs to be done!” He rushed back to his family’s home before returning with a large bag full of parts. “C’mon! Let’s go- we’re burning daylight here!”

Katara rolled her eyes. “Now you’re excited?” Sokka nodded. Soon, the siblings, Hakoda, and the three Jedi were getting ready to head back to the ship. 

Aang tried balancing on the otter penguin, but as soon as it moved he slipped off. He tried a few more times before Katara sledded over. “Wanna ride?” Aang smiled and nodded. He held onto Katara and blushed. “I’m glad that you came here, Aang.”

“R-really?” Aang smiled. He wished he could see Katara’s face. “I’m glad I got to meet you, too.” 

Katara turned over her shoulder. “Yeah! Now I get to be a Jedi, too.” Aang’s face fell. “But you’re pretty cool, too.” Katara grabbed Aang’s hand. “Maybe you can teach me some force stuff in exchange for the penguin sledding?”

Aang giggled. “I don’t know if I’m that good… I’m still a padawan after all.”

“I’m sure you’re really strong, Aang.” Katara smirked. “Even if I’m stronger than you.”

Aang laughed out loud that time. “I can’t wait until we’re back at the temple together. Maybe you can be Master Iroh’s padawan as well.”

Katara smiled. “Maybe.” Katara leaned closer to the ground. “Hold on tight- we’re almost there!” Katara sped up to overtake everyone so that she and Aang got to the crash site first. “Woo! We won!”

Sokka arrived next and breathed in awe as he saw what the ship looked like.

“Okay- let’s get this baby running!”

As he began to work, Katara walked over to Toph and Aang. “So, what’s being a padawan like?”

“It’s super cool! I feel like I’ve been working my whole life towards this and now that I get to go on missions, things are finally paying off!”

Toph nodded. “Yeah! Look at the smile on my face!”

She turned to Katara, who jumped in shock. “What’s with your eyes?” Toph tilted her head to the side. “Why are they white?”

“I’m blind.” Toph smiled. “But I use the force to see. I can sense people and objects around me in space; details are hard, but I can usually get a good scope of what’s going on.”

“That’s so cool!” Toph raised an eyebrow. “Not that you’re blind, but that you can use the force to see. All I can do is lift things.”

“All you can do… for now!” Aang smiled. “I promise you’re gonna be so good when you finally get training! You’re awesome, Katara!”

Katara smiled. “I’m gonna go see what Sokka’s doing,” Toph said. She entered the ship and walked over to where Sokka was tinkering in the machinery of the ship. “Need any help?”

Sokka emerged from the hole. “I don’t know what you can do exactly.” Toph raised an eyebrow. “But sure. Try and make yourself useful.” Sokka stuck his head back in the hole. “Now where’s that screwdriver?” Suddenly it flew right into Sokka’s hand. He whipped around. “Did you do that?”

“Does a Jedi use the force?”

Sokka turned back around. “Thanks.”

“So how are the repairs going?” 

“Almost done, actually.” Sokka smiled. “Most of the repairs were physical, not mechanical, so after this I’ll just have to weld the breaks in the actual ship.”

“I can definitely help with that part. Where’s the scrap metal?” Sokka gestured over to a pile in the middle of the hall. “I’m blind. Use your words.”

“They’re to your left.” Toph nodded. She used the force to pick up pieces of scrap metal and hold them in place while she welded the gaps shut. “Oh! Good job, Toph.”

“Thanks.” Toph smiled. “You, too.”

A few minutes later, Sokka emerged from the door to the ship. “Done!”

“Wow, he really does know how to fix them!”

Toph exited the door behind him. “I told you he wasn’t lying!” She smirked. “But I helped.”

“C’mon let’s go let’s go let’s go!” Sokka jumped up and down.

“Sokka,” Hakoda said, “I’m sure Master Iroh, Toph, and Aang are all very tired from having a crash landing today and staying up so long.” He turned to Iroh. “Why don’t you all stay the night. We can have a goodbye feast for my children and you can leave in the morning.”

Iroh smiled. “That sounds lovely. Thank you.”

Aang and Toph cheered. “Feast! Feast! Feast!”

The party that night was full of lively chatter. The entire tribe had shown up to say goodbye to Sokka and Katara and send them off on their journey. Their grandmother had just about cried when Hakoda had given a toast about how happy and proud he was that Katara and Sokka were forging their own paths and creating their own destinies.

After the feast was over and everyone was leaving, Hakoda stopped Iroh. “Can I speak to you?” Iroh nodded. They waited for the last stragglers to drain out of the meeting hall before Hakoda sat back down. “I’m so excited for my kids… but I’m scared, too. I’m going to miss them so much. I’m worried that Katara’s spent too long with us- will she be able to assimilate with the other Jedi? Will she have to start as a youngling?”

“I don’t know the answers to those questions. It’s clear that she taught herself the basics, so she might start as a Padawan, but I cannot be sure.” Iroh looked to Hakoda. “I’ll have to talk it over with the other council members, but I’ll make sure that when she does become a Padawan that I’ll be her master.”

Hakoda nodded. “Thank you, Master Iroh. Please make sure that Katara and Sokka look out for each other. Neither of them have even ever left this island, and now they’re going to a whole other planet.”

“Of course. They’ll be close, I promise.” Iroh leaned over to hug Hakoda. “Trust me, I know how important family is.”

“I feel better.” Hakoda took a deep breath and wringed his hands together. “Thank you so much.”

They all slept soundly that night and went with another sendoff party to the ship the next morning.

“Goodbye, Dad. Goodbye, Gran-Gran. I’ll never forget you!” 

“Goodbye, Sokka. Please come and visit once in a while? We’ll miss you so much.”

Iroh walked up to say goodbye to Hakoda. “I know this is hard for you, but thank you for allowing your children to choose their own paths.” Hakoda nodded. “I’ll make sure to tell the Jedi Council that you’re all alive.” Everyone laughed. “Thank you for the food and shelter.”

Just a few moments later, everyone was strapped in, the ship had taken off, and Aang was pushing them into lightspeed. “Coruscant here we come!”

“You’re weak! Just like your uncle!” Zuko shimmied back on his hands, never turning around for fear of being hit in the back. “You’re too kind! Too compassionate! I should’ve gotten rid of you while I had the chance! To think I was ever going to choose you over Azula!”

“Father! Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me, I’ll do anything!”

Ozai frowned. “I don’t want you to do anything!” Zuko got up on his knees with his hands clasped and Ozai sneered, kicking him back down in the head. “You’ll never be a sith. You’ve never had what it takes and I was too weak to dispose of my own son. I had hopes for you, Zuko.” Ozai paused. “But I’m not going to kill you. Consider this one last mercy. However, you will be cast off this planet, never to return, and Azula will succeed me as a Sith Lord instead of you.”

Zuko began to cry. “Thank you so much! Father, I-”

“Get out of my sight before I change my mind.”

Zuko quickly scrambled to his feet and ran towards the dock, hopping in a shuttle that had recently been refueled. He sat down and immediately took off, jumping into lightspeed the second he entered the atmosphere. His hands moved frantically, not at all similar to the practiced movements he had learned from his mother’s piloting lessons, and his mind was racing, trying to think of any planet in the galaxy that would take him in.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully people like this- honestly it feels a bit out there to me but I'm excited to see where this goes. 
> 
> Please leave a comment telling me what you think!


End file.
